NHL still investigating Kane
NEWARK, N.J. — The legal process is over for Patrick Kane, who will not be charged in connection with a sexual assault allegation. But the scrutiny is far from over. NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said Thursday that the league will continue its own investigation into what happened on Aug. 2 in Hamburg, N.Y. The league’s collective-bargaining agreement with the players gives the NHL broad powers to suspend players for conduct that is “detrimental to or against the welfare of the league or the game of hockey.”
“In light of the statement issued today by the Erie County District Attorney’s Office, as an internal league matter, we intend to promptly review the information that may now be available to us,” Daly said. “We will have no further comment until we have completed that review.”
The league was mum on what that investigation might entail. But Nellie Drew, a sports law expert and professor at the University of Buffalo who previously served as an outside counsel for the NHL and a team attorney for the Buffalo Sabres, said the league likely has already conducted an investigation.
“It’s not required that someone be indicted or be guilty of a crime to be disciplined,” Drew said. “But it is certainly less likely now that the NHL will impose discipline. … If there was any evidence out there at all that was along the lines of what has happened in any of the other professional sports cases we have heard about recently, and I mean any evidence at all along those lines, I am sure the NHL would have acted swiftly,” Drew said. “The current climate in sports is one in which the NHL would not take any chances waiting.”
Business talk
Kane, one of the most marketable stars in recent Chicago sports history, might have trouble finding endorsement deals, even though he wasn’t charged. He was taken off the cover of EA Sports’ popular ‘‘NHL 16’’ video game after reports of the sexual-assault allegation against him surfaced in August. His other primary sponsors, including McDonald’s, Chevrolet, Gatorade and Bauer, did not sever ties with Kane but had little or nothing to say about the investigation.
Even though Kane has not been charged, ESPN sports business reporter Darren Rovell said it could take time for him to win back image-conscious corporate executives. He compared it with Kobe Bryant, who had a rape charge dropped and a civil suit settled in 2004 but lost his endorsement with McDonald’s, among others.
“I don’t think he will be completely unaffected by this, fair or not,” Rovell said. “I do think there will be people who have made judgments, and [despite] the fact that basically the whole case against him has been dropped, I think there will still be people who still don’t give him the benefit of the doubt in the marketplace. And the truth is, fair or not, the better he is, the more the Blackhawks win, the smaller that group of people is.”
Rovell said Kane possibly could have legal recourse against EA Sports for dropping him from the video game cover, depending on the wording of any morals clause in the contract. He added that the Hawks took a great risk by allowing Kane to play, to keep selling his jerseys, and by having him make public appearances, such as at Notre Dame and Bears football games, ‘‘given how gold their brand is.’’